GENUS TRICHONYMPHA. 553 



HAB. Endoparasitic within the intestine of the American white ant, 

 Termes flavipes (Jos. Leidy). 



The movements of this animalcule, as described by Professor Leidy, consist of 

 an incessant retraction or shortening and bending to and fro of the head-like 

 anterior region, accompanied by the rapid waving and swelling outwards of the long 

 ciliary hairs. Locomotion from one position to another is of rare occurrence, and 

 accomplished merely by a feeble jerking forwards for a short distance. The motions 

 of the longer cilia, forming the third series, are compared to the " flowing of a thin 

 sheet of water over the brim of a fountain vase or basin, swayed to one side or 

 to the other by a current of wind." The longest cilia, or fourth series, extending 

 beyond the posterior end of the body in a loosely twisted fascicle, are the least 

 active, but at times stretch outwardly and become more divergent at the ends, or 

 are applied more closely to the sides of the body. The most characteristic delinea- 

 tion of Trichonympha, illustrating the respective lengths and positions of attachment 

 of its four ciliary series as interpreted by its discoverer, is given at PI. XXVIII. 

 Fig. 2. In Fig. 3, while the two longer series are clearly separated, those belonging 

 to the first and second orders are indistinguishably blended. Pursuing another 

 simile, Professor Leidy remarks that the arrangement of the long cilia clothing the 

 body reminded him of the nymphs personified in a recent American spectacular 

 drama, the performers in which appeared having as their sole vesture and adorn- 

 ment long cords suspended fringewise from their shoulders, and which, as they 

 danced, were whirled around them in mazy undulations. This last-named likeness 

 quoted, originally suggested some affinity of the animalcules now under discussion 

 with the similarly endoparasitic Hexamitce described in the preceding volume. 

 These, when attached by their two posterior flagella, and spinning to and fro with 

 their four anterior appendages thrown into graceful convolutions around their bodies 

 in the manner recorded by the author (loc. tit., p. 320), might also with some appro- 

 priateness lay claim to the nymph-like simile suggested by Trichonympha; the dis- 

 tinctness of their respective types is, however, clearly demonstrated in connection 

 with the fuller data concerning Trichonympha now to hand. 



As shown by Professor Leidy's recent drawings of this singular organism, 

 here reproduced, the variations of contour that a single zooid is able to assume in 

 accordance with the degree of extension, contraction, or contortion of the body 

 are almost infinite. Attention, in this connection, may be more especially directed 

 to those shorter and longer symmetrically helicoidal body-contours exhibited at 

 PI. XXVIII. Figs. 4 and 5. At Fig. 3, while the anterior portion alone is spirally 

 revolute, the several series of cilia are so disposed as to communicate to the 

 organism a tout ensemble suggestive of the expanded plumes of a bird-of-paradise 

 (Paradisea apodd). In his later description of Trichonympha, Professor Leidy 

 expresses himself in very doubtful terms concerning the existence of a definite oral 

 aperture ; so that the indication given of such a structure, together with that of a 

 pharyngeal passage, derived from his earlier account, must for the present be 

 accepted as provisional. That an oral aperture does exist is inferred from the almost 

 invariable presence internally of what appear to be fragments of woody tissue derived 

 from the food-materials of their hosts the termites. He at the same time remarks, " If 

 the irregular particles so commonly observed in the body-endosarc of Trichonympha 

 are really food-particles, I have been sorely puzzled and have failed to ascertain 

 how they obtained entrance into the body. I have watched myriads of individuals 

 hours together, without ever having seen one of them swallow or discharge a particle 

 of food. I have been unable to detect anything like a mouth. I could detect no 

 trace of a passage through the head-endosarc, nor ever saw a particle within it 

 which might be on its way to the body-endosarc." 



Although the movements of Trichonympha agilis, when set free in an artificial 

 medium, are mostly limited to simple twistings, elongations, and contractions of 

 its body-mass, it would appear to possess the power of active locomotion within 

 the intestinal fluids of its host, wherein, as related by Dr. Leidy in his recent 

 paper, it may be detected amidst the dense concourse of its associates, gliding 



VOL. II. G 



